


I'll Be Back Again Someday

by CoupdeFruita



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Christmas, Father-Daughter Relationship, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Gen, Irondad, Irondad Secret Santa 2019, Light Angst, Parent Tony Stark, Platonic Affection, Platonic Relationships, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark isn't dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:55:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21908554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoupdeFruita/pseuds/CoupdeFruita
Summary: After Tony wakes up from his months-long coma post-snap, Pepper invites their extended family to stay for Christmas. This, of course, includes Peter and May.
Relationships: Harley Keener & Peter Parker, Harley Keener & Peter Parker & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark, Harley Keener & Tony Stark, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 6
Kudos: 62
Collections: Iron Dad Secret Santa 2019





	I'll Be Back Again Someday

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jelly_pies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jelly_pies/gifts).



_“Frosty the Snowman  
Knew the sun was hot that day  
So he said, ‘Let’s run  
And we’ll have some fun  
Now, before I melt away.” _

Tony closes his eyes and listens. He listens to the machines, beeping and whirling and keeping him alive for the time being. He listens to the music wafting through the air, slightly muted at his request. He has no issue with it—not when Morgan likes it so much—but his hearing has been a bit sensitive since it returned. Loud sounds feel like a punch to the face and leave his ears ringing for long after. Still, he listens, because that is all he can really do. Listen and watch, but the lights were beginning to give him a headache.

He listens to his daughter sing to herself. It’s beautiful.

It crosses Tony’s mind, much like how it had once consumed it, that there was a chance he wouldn’t have been here. There still is, if he’s being honest. Infections are real threats and potentially lethal. There’s still a possibility, even after all of his fighting and suffering, that he might not make it home.

It doesn’t scare him as much as it probably should—and yet, the prospect is terrifying. He’s _terrified_ and numb. He isn’t scared to die—he’s been prepared for it, and now with his final wish fulfilled, it seems all the more bittersweet. When Tony couldn’t save the world, bringing it back had been his last hurrah.

There is only one thing left for him, one thing he cares for deeply—his _family._ All of them. _They_ are the reason he fought so hard, tooth and nail, to claw his way out and keep going. _They_ are the thing he is afraid to lose, and he knows it would devastate them just the same to lose him.

Tony had just brought them all back together. He isn’t going to lose them again.

He isn’t going to let Morgan grow up without a father. He isn’t going to let Peter slip away again, he isn’t going to ruin the relationship he’d finally built with Harley after reconnecting with him after so long.

He isn’t going to leave Pepper alone. Never.

 _They’re stuck with me_ , he muses, but it isn’t as funny as it once would have been.

_“But he waved goodbye  
Saying, 'Don’t you cry,  
I’ll be back again someday.’” _

The song tapers off. Morgan’s scribbling comes to a stop. She shifts, paper crinkling, crayons rolling on the little table Pepper had brought in for her. “Daddy?”

“Yes, honey?”

“Why did Frosty have to leave?”

Tony opens his eyes. Morgan turns in her chair, her big eyes seeking solace in his response.

“He was a snowman.” Tony’s had five years of practice with this—and yet, still, he’s never ready for her questions. She’s growing up too fast, and he’s exhausted, but she's always been terribly curious. He wishes he could keep her innocent to the world's harsh reality for much longer. “He couldn’t stick around because if he did, he’d melt.”

Morgan nods. She doesn’t look any more appeased than she had been. “Did he ever come back?”

Tony tries to shrug, but simply the effort sucks the energy right out of him. “I’m sure he did. He wouldn’t leave his friends forever.”

She holds a crayon to her lips and looks off into space. Her _thinking face_ , Pepper so fondly refers to it as. She’s far too intelligent for her age, sometimes.

(And sometimes, it scares him, because she’s a lot like he used to be.)

Morgan hums like she wants to say something, but she just returns to her coloring book and says, “Okay.”

Tony rolls his head on the pillow to get a better look at her. “Did you want to ask me something else?”

“No,” she says after a moment of hesitation, and that is enough of an answer.

That’s okay. He can leave it alone for now.

* * *

With the number of people lingering around in the homeless shelter, it’s no wonder that his senses are oftentimes overwhelmed.

No matter where Peter may try to hide, the abundance of stimuli follows him—loud, incessant chattering; the stench of body odor drenched in cheap perfume; bright, white lights, beaming down on him all day and sometimes late into the night. Their blankets are old and worn, uncomfortable right next to exposed skin. He feels crowded and stuck and lonely in a crowd of hundreds.

He tries not to care. It’s been months since they were uprooted from their home—from the lives they’d lived five years ago—and Peter’s tried getting over it. He’s tried to not care so much, if only for his aunt’s sake.

He tries, but he hasn’t felt quite right since the blip.

Peter’s _okay_. Adjusting is just… much more difficult than he’d anticipated.

(He’d hoped to have guidance in situations like these, like he’d always been welcome to in the past, but it’s hard to think about where he wants to be when his only mentor has been fighting for his own life after sacrificing it for the universe. He’s mostly only thought about that, on top of his reintroduction to society and school and being suddenly homeless.)

Pepper had invited Peter and May to stay at the lakehouse for the holidays. Seeing as they had no other option, the offer hadn’t been passed on.

The house is surreal, only in that it looks both perfectly immaculate and comfortably lived in. The television set alone likely cost more than their rent used to without it being too outlandishly grandeur. It is obvious that a child lives among them with the countless toys and coloring utensils strewn about the place.

Morgan is as lively as her messiness suggests, but she is also quite bashful. She’d shied away from Peter and May when they first arrived, as it’d been months since she last saw either of them, but once Peter showed an interest in her drawings and May proved herself to be of no ill intentions, Morgan took to them fairly well. Peter spent most of the first day drawing with crayons and crouching into chairs far too small for his frame. Morgan had laughed when he’d fallen out of one, once.

Peter is pretty sure he loves her already. It is hard not to.

The first day passed in a breeze. As awkward as it was staying in someone’s house, there was plenty of room and Pepper was just as nice and conscientious as she’d always been. Her assurances that their presence was far more of a treat than an intrusion calmed Peter enough that he was able to stay relatively relaxed throughout the afternoon. He hadn’t even been compelled to retreat to the bedroom that had been deemed his until everyone else was heading off to bed.

Of course, once he’d actually _seen_ the room… the realization and pain brought alone by the ever so familiar decor were enough to reopen some of the wounds he’d tried to hide.

The next day would peck at the scars even more, as he’d woken up relatively early after a night of restless half-sleep to find out that they’d be visiting the hospital a couple of hours before noon.

Peter isn’t _avoiding_ Tony. It isn’t that simple. The sight of him is just too much to bear when he is already so vulnerable himself. The bandages on his face and vacancy of his right arm reminded him so much of what they’d lost, what they _could’ve_ lost.

Sometimes, when Peter tries to build up the courage to visit the man who’d saved and forever changed his life, he’d be scared that he’d find the bed empty. That it had all been a dream and they hadn’t ever been as lucky as they’d hoped.

It’s hard enough dying in his own dreams over and over and over. It’s less of a haunting image than it is a _reminder_ ; the heroes don’t always win. Sometimes, half the universe dies, and it’s a fact of life Peter had never had to truly consider before.

Sometimes, facing reality is a lot harder than it should be—especially when that reality is better than the alternative. All things considered, Peter should be _happy_.

So why does it still feel like everything could start crumbling down around him at any second?

May guides him down the halls of the hospital by his arm with words of encouragement. She tells that Tony’s missed him (probably), that he shouldn’t be scared because they are all okay, that he should try to breathe. So, Peter tries, and May opens the door.

The sight of Tony much more _alive_ than he’d been months ago comforts Peter immensely. The sudden obstruction of his view and subsequent impact with another body is less so.

“I’m sorry,” Peter immediately mumbles as he holds his hands out and springs back out of the door. The other visitor just laughs and shakes his head. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know someone was already here—”

“It’s fine, kid,” Tony calls. Peter peers into the room, where Tony’s shaking his head with amusement and pointing toward his other guest. “Harley doesn’t bite.”

“Harley,” Peter confirms. Then he reaches out a hand. “Hi, I’m Peter.”

“Yeah, I know.” Harley waves once more back at Tony before gently making his way past Peter and out the door. “Nice to finally meet you. I have to go, but we can talk later, yeah?”

“Uh, yeah.”

Peter watches him go before he enters the room. Tony smiles and gestures him over. Peter breathes a small sigh of relief as he makes his way over. “Who was that?”

“Hello to you, too,” Tony snarks, then pats Peter on the shoulder. He shifts to sit up and waves at May where she lingers close to the door. “You’re allowed to come closer, you know.”

"Thought I’d let you two reacquaint yourselves with each other. I’ll go get some coffee.” She waves at them before backing out of the room, her intentions obvious in the expression on her face.

Tony hums and watches her go. He turns to Peter and instructs him to take the chair Harley had once occupied. “He’s a nice kid—really smart, too. Kind of reminds me of you.”

Peter fidgets with his hands and smiles at the compliment. “Where did you meet him?”

“Tennessee. He had a potato gun.” Tony shrugs. His face scrunches up with pain. “That was when he was a kid. I found him again during the whole… you know. Haven’t been able to see him in person again until today.”

Peter bites his lip. “Why didn’t you ever tell me about him?”

Tony gives him a strange look. “Didn’t think it mattered, before. It does now, though.”

Peter scoots his chair closer as carefully as he can. He tries to ignore the scars and peculiar uncomfortableness that only hospitals seem to manage. “I don’t remember you going to Tennessee.”

“Oh, it was a long time ago.” Tony waves his hand dismissively.

Peter grips his hands on the arms of his chair and tries to lean back and relax. “Can you tell me about it?”

Tony tilts his head. He studies Peter’s face and glances at his hands, then nods. “Alright. Settle down. I’ll just tell you the really heroic parts.”

“You can’t fool me,” Peter starts, then allows his thoughts to settle for a second. “Tony.”

* * *

“And then the dragon swoops down and _roars_ —”

“Oh, no! I’m not gonna make it!”

Peter flops down onto Morgan’s bed and curls around himself, as if frightened. Morgan shrieks and throws her stuffed dragon right at his head. She hops onto the bed and crawls over him, tickling his stomach and shoving the dragon in his face.

Peter grabs Morgan and hugs her tight. “Save me, Knight Morguna!”

Giggling hysterically, Morgan punches the dragon’s snout with her little hand and shoves it off the bed. She wraps her arms around Peter’s neck and clings to him as if her life depended on it. “It’s okay, Petey. I killed the dragon.”

Peter throws his arm over his head and sighs dramatically. “Thank God, I’m saved!”

Peter sits up as Morgan crawls off of him. She hops around the room among her mess of toys and blocks, making her way over to where Harley was observing the spectacle with amusement. “Is the castle fixed?”

“Just like new,” Harley confirms with a wave to the huge and grand Lego castle he’d worked on building since his arrival. Peter is honestly impressed by the sophistication of it, though Morgan is obviously more interested in knocking it down than anything else. “Will this suffice for the Royal Highness?”

Morgan hums consideringly. “I love it. What do you think, Prince Petey?”

“It’s awesome.” Peter hops down off of the bed and sits on the side opposite of Harley. “Hopefully we won’t have any more raids or attacks for a while. I’d hate to watch it break… again.”

Harley shrugs. “You know where I’m living for the next week if you ever need me to fix it.”

“Maybe we could build one together, sometime,” Peter suggests. Morgan plops down into his lap, her arms full of dolls and small stuffed animals. Peter helps her set the animals around the perimeter to act as guards against potential assailants.

“Dad used to get me Legos all the time, so I have a lot you can use.” Morgan leans back into Peter’s chest and wraps his arms around herself. “He helped me build them when Mom was working.”

Peter rests his head on top of hers. He thinks about earlier when Morgan had dragged him to up to her room per her mother’s suggestion. _Daddy told me you like Legos. I have a lot we can play with!_

Did Tony get Morgan Legos because she liked them, or because they reminded him of Peter?

Tony had obviously dealt with a lot of guilt and pain during the blip—Peter knows how Tony thinks. Had he really impressed his view of Peter upon his daughter?

Suddenly, Morgan hops up excitedly. “I forgot to ask Mom for the ice creams!” She runs out of the room, just barely missing the door as she called down the hall to her mother. Peter watches her go, startled and confused, and Harley laughs.

“Kids.” Harley shakes his head and turns to Peter. “Hey, do you have any idea if she likes Dora?”

“The show? No, I don’t.” Peter tilts his head, “Why?”

“No reason.”

“Oh.” Peter glances over the Lego castle, gently running a hand over it. “Seriously, this is really good. It’s so detailed and complex. You build stuff like this all the time?”

“Used to,” Harley confirms, scooting around it to sit closer to Peter. “I built all kinds of things with my sister when we were younger. I just like building things.”

“Like potato guns?” Harley raises an eyebrow at that. Peter chuckles. “Tony mentioned it to me yesterday. Told me how you two met when he crashed in Tennessee.”

“Ah, yeah.” Harley starts adding little pieces to the castles, embellishing even more. “I thought I was his sidekick back then. Before he left, at least.”

Peter rubs his hands on his jeans. Then he picks up some blocks and helps Harley by building an observation tower. “Did you ever hope he would come back?”

Harley sighs and nods. “Yeah, I did. It was like it never happened after he left. My mom told me it was probably just a dream or something, and I believed her sometimes. But after everyone left, he found me again. We started emailing each other, and it just… took off from there.” He gestures to Morgan’s room, “Here I am.”

“I’m glad,” Peter says after a moment of silence. “That you’re able to be here. That I was able to meet you. I can tell you mean a lot to Tony.”

Peter is _happy_ that Harley is here, not that he ever thought he wouldn’t be. Harley is kind and means no harm—he is here for Tony and Christmas just as Peter and May are, and it makes him feel less alone to have someone closer to his age that he can associate with. Someone who can better understand his feelings, perhaps, and vice versa.

He is happy that, for this moment, he doesn’t have to feel lonely in a crowd. He’s known Harley for less than a week, but spending what little time with him that he has and hearing Tony’s stories about their conversations, he could tell he was important. Important like himself.

Important like Happy and Rhodey and May. Maybe even important like Pepper and Morgan.

(Maybe someday.)

“You mean a lot to him too,” Harley smiles. He clicks more Legos into place and gives Peter a wholesome look. “He loves you.”

Somehow, that startles Peter. Not that it is necessarily surprising—but that he can _believe_ it. He can believe it like he couldn’t before. Before.

(Peter remembers the hug. In the haze of reanimation and a world-shattering battle, he remembers that moment the clearest. _That_ had been surprising. Welcomed, but unpredicted by his fractured mind. He remembers scooting his chair closer to Tony’s bed in the hospital yesterday, and that moment that Tony’s hand accidentally hit his shoulder. It is memorable because Tony hadn’t moved away. He would’ve _before_.

Tony had put his hand on his shoulder for longer than a quick second, without clearing his throat self-consciously, without hesitation in his eyes. He’d ruffled his hair a couple of times when he’d laughed and had hugged him before he left. He hadn’t seemed ashamed.

Peter can believe that Tony loves him because he’s seen it. It’s only been a few days, a few small moments, but he _knows_. He knows it, because in the same way, at the same time, he loves Morgan after only knowing her for such a short time. He’s easily accepted her into his family, as he knows May has as well.

He couldn’t imagine spending Christmas anywhere else, anymore.)

“Yeah,” is Peter’s response. “We’re his family. He has no choice.”

Though Harley says nothing, Peter can tell that he agrees.

* * *

“Watch out, kid. Don’t need you breaking an ankle three days before Christmas.”

Harley shrugs but adjusts his position on the stepladder anyway. “I’ll be fine.”

“Don’t fall!” Morgan hurries over to Harley and plants her hands on the stool to keep it steady. “You’ll break all the pretty things.”

“Ornaments, honey,” Pepper corrects gently. Morgan tries to repeat her, but it just comes out in a garbled mess of sounds that only kids can manage.

“Thanks for your concern,” Harley chides, patting her on the head. “While you’re down there, hand me some snowflakes.”

Morgan purses her lips and gives Harley a look of disappointment.

Harley laughs. “Please, your majesty?”

“That’s better.”

Tony watches the exchange with barely contained amusement. He’d made sure to raise Morgan as a stickler for good manners and it seems his attempts had been a success. He was happy to see both Harley and Peter had taken a quick liking to his Princess—but, if he were being honest (and maybe biased) he’d find it impossible not to. She was adorable and funny and the light of the world. How could anyone not immediately fall for her?

While Harley and Morgan are busy taping homemade snowflakes to the walls of his hospital room, Peter has occupied himself with securing a string of lights around the perimeter of the ceiling. Instead of a ladder, though, he was perfectly content to scale the walls on his own and pin the lights as high as he could. It would certainly be a sight to see if a nurse were to wander by, but for Tony, it was strangely comforting. He knew Peter could take care of himself.

Tony simply can’t help but marvel at the mere presence of the kid— _all_ of his kids. Peter has been gone for five years, Harley had disappeared from his life for longer, and Morgan’s existence is a gift. They are proof of all of the good he has left inside himself. They are the kind of people he’d sworn to protect.

They are the people he’d fallen in love with, against some odds. They are his kids. They’re his legacy.

Tony can finally admit it. He’s not afraid to love them anymore.

“They’re having a blast,” Pepper says as she sits beside Tony on his bed. He shuffles over and drapes his arm over her shoulders, holding her close and kissing her. “Now if only we could get them this excited to clean it up.”

“If you use the right bribe,” Tony begins, but Pepper’s humorously disapproving look shuts him up. “If the hospital fines us, I’ll make them pay for it.”

“They could sell lemonade and wash cars together.” Pepper rests her head on Tony’s shoulder. Together, they watch Peter and Harley throw around playful insults, resulting in Peter wrapped in tinsel and Harley covered in stick-on bows.

“They wouldn’t last.”

Tony sits and he watches his kids. His heart feels warmer than it has in years. He holds his wife and winks at Happy when he and May slide into the room. He leans his head against Pepper’s and closes his eyes, simply listening to the chaos and the low thrumming of music from Morgan’s radio.

“Is this not the best Christmas you’ve ever had?” he asks with his mouth pressed into Pepper’s hair.

She sighs contently and curls up closer to him. “Yeah, it is. But I have a feeling next year will be even better.”

* * *

On Christmas morning, Tony Stark wakes up surrounded by his family. He is bedridden, eternally exhausted, and missing an arm, but he’s alive and loved and that’s enough. That’s more than enough.

With Morgan curled up in his lap and Peter and Harley passing out the presents, Tony is intimately aware of the overwhelming joy and affection that is consuming him. Tony hugs Morgan close, kisses the top of her head, and watches her unwrap her presents. His hand lingers on Peter’s arm when he gives him his own gift, and Peter smiles brighter than he has at all since his return. Harley offers him a plate of cookies and a small hug, sitting on the edge of his bed as Peter passes out the last of the presents. When he’s done, he gathers up his own and sits on the other side.

This is his family. This is how they spend Christmas; in a hospital room covered in handmade decorations colored by a four-year-old, together and laughing and smiling. Tony throws his wrapping paper at Rhodey’s head, May attempts subtlety as she leans closer to Happy, and his kids are planning their future playdates based on the new toys they’d received. With plenty of Lego sets in their future, they’ll be nothing short of busy when they come together again.

This is Tony Stark’s first Christmas with his entire family trapped together in a single room.

Tony is happy to be alive.


End file.
